Apparently, time had been frozen while she was inside The Devourer’s mirror. Tina tried to remember if that had been included in her instruction at her school. Her old school. She sure as the abyss wouldn’t be going back there! But she had never paid much attention to the actual process of being a supplicant or the Mirrors themselves. It hadn’t been important for her to know the specifics. As far as she had been concerned, she would show up, go through the Mirror of the Dancer, and then her life could begin.
“You wanted to Mirror the Dancer?” The voice that was going to be her constant companion asked. The god sounded incredulous. “How was that going to lead you to a path of power?”
“I didn’t want power.” Tina responded. Her emotions were completely calm as she looked around the Hall of Mirrors as it unfroze. She could hear the clatter of the priests and guards who had chased her in here. Where before, their sound had filled her with fear, now she felt a somewhat curious apathy. It would certainly be interesting to see how they responded to her new class. “I just wanted to live my own life, be happy. Get away from this town.”
“Hmm.” The voice in her head rumbled but made no further comment.
Before Tina could continue the conversation, they were discovered. It was one of the guards who called the others over with a shouted, “Here she is!” He jogged over to her.
Hey, now that I’m a part of the System, shouldn’t I be able to see System information… Tina tried to activate some kind of sight or ability that would allow her to read his class information. But nothing she did pulled up any kind of information about the man. There were lots of tricks that she had read about in school for activating System features or skills. It hadn’t been a formal part of any school curriculum, but the school library had several diaries from famous adventurers and many of them had described examination skills of some kind that would reveal information about people. Apparently, those skills were not built into the System itself though. She would have to figure out how to develop them…
Name: Calix Lito
Species: Human
Class: Sacred Guardian 7
“There is a bunch of information beyond that related to his various stats and abilities. I could display it if it becomes relevant, but there is a limit to how much the human brain can process quickly, and he’s on his way over here.”
“You can just access it?”
“I think I may have undersold you on the part where I am a divine, primordial essence. Now that I’m part of the System, I’m part of it. The System works because of power drawn from the gods … Hmm…” The Devourer’s attention was drawn away by something. Even though Tina could still sense his presence in the back of her head, it was clear he was paying no attention to their surroundings at the moment. It was very abrupt, as if his attention had been yanked away.
She hailed the Guardian as he made his way over to her, giving him a polite wave. “Hello Sacred Guardian Lito.”
The man almost tripped over himself halting abruptly at her call. “Wha…? Who are you? How do you know…?”
“She must have awakened some kind of examination ability.” Another man called out as he rounded a bend in the Hall of Mirrors. He and a woman with him both wore the robes of the priestly attendants. When Tina tried to prod the Devourer to identify them though, the god’s distraction meant he barely noticed her attempts before mentally waving her off. “So that means she must have been accepted by some Mirror.”
The woman frowned. “She did not perform the preparations though. That should be impossible.” She held up her hand and made a bizarre gesture. There was a brief flash of energy and then a pane of blue energy appeared in the air before her and her brow furrowed. “Pain Devourer? There are no records of that class.” She looked through the pane at Tina and barked out her question. “Girl, which Mirror did you enter? It has been corrupted by some demonic force to be able to break the Accords.”
“Demons!” The Guardian shouted in alarm. He drew his sword and leveled it at Tina. “She just awoke and she’s already a demon class? Do we need to cull her?” He looked in confusion at the two priests, seeking their orders.
The man came and peered over the woman’s shoulder at the blue pane. “She’s already level 2? How?”
“A gift from the demon to entice her, no doubt. Girl, which Mirror did you use? We need to purify it. Hopefully, we can still purify you.”
“YOU WILL NOT!” A voice echoed into the Hall. It was not The Devourer, who remained distracted by something. The three adults looked around in alarm as the dominating presence of a god slammed into place around all of them. Slammed seemed to be the operative word as well, as the other three were forced to kneel under the pressure. Tina was able to remain standing. The air felt oppressively heavy and hard to breathe. It reminded her of the worst days of the unusually hot summer a few years back, when the air had felt like hot soup to even try to breathe. It was not a scary presence, unlike The Devourer’s. Although that could have been Tina adapting to the presence of the divine. She figured her ability to stay standing was related to the Chosen One trait, since it was the only thing she had over these three.
Stolen story; please report.
The woman croaked out. “We are sworn to prevent the Hall from being corrupted by demons.”
“IT HAS NOT BEEN CORRUPTED. IT FUNCTIONS AS DESIGNED.” A figure blurred into existence a few paces away from the group. It was impossible to make out any defining characteristics of their face or body, as the whole of the individual was hidden by a voluminous robe with a deep, shrouding cowl. In hands covered by giant sleeves, it held a massive tome open, although it did not appear to be reading from it. The other thing that was unusual, at least from a mortal perspective, is that it was entirely made of blue energy of the exact same shade as the boxes of the System.
The woman looked up at the figure and struggled to rise to her feet, but ultimately failed. “The gods cannot manifest in the world. You must be a …” Tina could feel a wash of energy bolt from the divine figure to the woman, who suddenly collapsed, unable to speak and gasping for breath.
“REVIEW THE ACCORDS, PRIESTESS. OTHERS CANNOT. I CAN. I AM THE ADMINISTRATOR, AND AN ADMINISTRATOR MUST BE ABLE TO ACCESS WHAT IT ADMINISTERS.” The divine entity turned its attention to the other two. “THE SYSTEM HAS FINALLY FULFILLED ITS PURPOSE. THE DEVOURER HAS JOINED. A NEW MIRROR WILL BE ADDED. TINA COSTELLO IS THE GROUNDING LINK. IF SHE IS LOST, THE DEVOURER WILL BE LOST TO THE SYSTEM ONCE MORE. THIS MUST NOT HAPPEN.” The Administrator turned its attention to Tina and a divine gust of wind blew through the entire Hall of Mirrors. A groaning sigh echoed through the room. “THIS WILL BECOME TIRESOME…”
Tina felt a jolt of power smack into her soul and felt something change. A System alert appeared in front of her.
NEW TRAIT GAINED
ADMINISTRATOR APPROVAL – FOR THOSE WHO CAN SEE THIS, THE BEARER HAS BEEN GRANTED THE APPROVAL OF THE ADMINISTRATOR FOR THEIR CLASS. INTERFERENCE WILL WARRANT INTERVENTION. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
The god turned back to others. ”YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.” With the same abruptness with which the Administrator had descended, it disappeared, along with its suffocating presence. It left behind a stunned group of people. The trio who had been reprimanded by the god but also Tina, who found that one encounter with one god barely prepared you for a second.
The appearance of the trait prompted a return of The Devourer’s attention. “I stop paying attention for two minutes and this happens?” It sounded aggrieved and gave a theatrical sigh. “Well, at least the trait is helpful.” Tina couldn’t help but notice that the god was sounding less divine with every moment, but she couldn’t have a conversation with it right now with the trio of adults recovering.
“Well…” The male priest spoke up first. “I suppose that is that. She has received a class from a proper Mirror. Our role in this is over.”
“Like the hells it is.” The woman snarled. She glared at Tina with the special loathing of someone who blamed her for her humiliation. “All of this will be looked into. We cannot allow demons to seize the Hall of Mirrors. It will not be allowed.” With that final growl, she turned on her heel and stalked off. The two men with her exchanged confused glances but then followed her.
Tina waited for a moment for them to clear out. She tried to whisper to the god in her head so that they wouldn’t overhear her. “What’s a demon? They don’t talk about them in school.”
Fortunately, the god’s voice was only inside her head, for The Devourer did nothing to limit its projected volume. “I don’t know. The System locked me out for thousands of years, remember. There were no demons back then. Also, you can just think at me, you don’t need to speak out loud and have people look at you like you’re unstable.” Tina looked up ahead to see if the people up ahead were indeed looking back at her, but they didn’t seem to have noticed.
Why are you sounding less and less like a god?
There was a sensation like the god sighing. “I’m being carried around in the head of a teenage girl. All of my experiences, perspectives, cultural attitudes, vocabulary, and syntax are being shaped by you. The fuller me is still out in the cosmos, but this part of me becomes what it is by devouring your attitudes.”
Wait, devouring? Are you going to kill me?
“No, what good would that do me? You heard the Administrator. If you die, I’d be back to being trapped.” The voice paused, looking for an analogy. “Have you ever smelled fresh bread? The smell alone tells you how delicious it is, and even what kind of bread it is. So you devour the smell, but the bread remains. That’s what you are to me.”
That doesn’t really sound like devouring anymore. Isn’t devouring to eat something until it’s gone?
“Only until you’re better at it.”
Tina left that comment alone and trudged along. She found herself walking stiffly, but didn’t really understand why. It was like her legs didn’t want to move correctly. A blue box flashed up in front of her, although she wasn’t the one who had summoned it. Apparently, The Devourer could just bring them up.
Pain Devouring - Initiate
Can absorb pain from target using Mana. Pain is stored as “Pain Points” for use in other abilities. The greater the pain, the greater the Pain Points gathered and the greater the Mana required. This does not remove the source of the pain. Current Conversion: 8 MP to 1 PP.
“Your body is still sore from overexertion, you just can’t feel it.”
That sounds dangerous. Can’t you hurt yourself like that?
“Probably. The System would warn you of any actual injury though. You’d lose Health Points or pick up some kind of status effect. You aren’t there yet, and you could force yourself to walk properly if you wanted.”
Tina tried to do that and found it challenging. Walking was such an automatic process that focusing on it made it difficult to actually walk properly. By the time she reached the top of the stairs up out of the Hall of Mirrors, she had figured out how to move like she wasn’t sore. That did nothing to stop the massive yawn that cracked her features. Wait, when did I get so exhausted?
It was technically still part of the school day, but Tina found herself actively not wanting to return. She would probably get scolded for leaving midday, but that would happen whether she returned or not. Same again with her parents, but that would probably also happen no matter what. So really, why should she go back to the school for the rest of the day? She pulled up the schedule in her mind to remember what she’d be missing. Literature was a waste of a class at this point. With only three weeks left until the end of term – when the rest of the class would be getting their Classes the normal way – Literature was spent reviewing the proper procedures. She’d used to like the class, when they were reading tales of heroes and far-off places, or even just historical narratives that gave life to the stuff they were learning in History class. Then Gymnasium class was just for exercising. Tina usually just did the minimum in that class. She did well enough to pass the tests, but never pushed to excel at it, finding exercising to be mostly tedium. That’s probably why my Physical Training trait only said ‘adequate’ while Schooling said ‘sufficient.’ I wonder if I can raise them.
Seeing things labeled and quantified made the idea of working hard more interesting, if she could actually grow them. That idea occupied Tina as she made her way home, deciding to forego the two remaining classes of the day. The voice in her head stayed silent for the entire walk, and she had the feeling that it was distracted by something. It was pleasant to be alone in her own head already. She couldn’t imagine going through the rest of her life with a voice in her head. Was that what it meant to be crazy?